The idea that you could make a machine that acts with intelligence dates back to the civilizations of Ancient Greece, China, and India. Various attempts have been made over the centuries to bring this idea to life (one particularly amusing example was the creation of a mechanical duck).
However, true artificial intelligence had to wait for the invention of the digital computer, specifically one of its modern incarnations, the neural network.
Neural networks use a process called machine learning to learn how to discover patterns in data, which enables them to generate output similar (or sometimes superior) to that of a human being.
Machine learning AI is now being used to solve problems across multiple industries, including healthcare, military, finance, news, and even digital marketing. According to a recent digital marketing survey, AI is poised to completely transform the marketing landscape by 2020.
If you wish to know more about the various ways in which AI is being used in digital marketing, check out our short primer on the topic in the remainder of this post.
AI and Personalization
Personalized experiences are a key component of modern digital marketing. Generic, mass-produced content is no longer effective at generating consumer interest due to years of constant exposure. Personalized content, on the other hand, has been correlated with higher revenue, stronger brand loyalty, and overall better customer experiences. Personalized digital marketing campaigns are now easier to implement than ever thanks to AI. One prominent example includes AI-powered suggestion algorithms used Amazon, Netflix, Spotify, and many others. By connecting their customer database to an AI, these companies can synthesize various kinds of data, from visitor on-site behavior, purchase history, reviews, ratings, etc. to provide personalized product suggestions. Another way in which AI is helping with personalization is through audience targeting and segmentation. Solutions such as Limespot or Vue.ai are giving small and mid-sized businesses a way to create personalized digital marketing strategies and campaigns on a budget.AI and Customer Service
Customer service in the digital era is built around providing timely, relevant responses to customer queries. Failing to respond at a moment’s notice is likely to generate a negative experience, reducing the likelihood of a conversion. This is a tough challenge to overcome. Even if you drastically expand your customer service department, you likely won’t be able to satisfy customer demand. Or at least that was the case until customer service chatbots became a reality. As you probably know by now, chatbots are special programs created for conversation-based tasks. They can engage with website visitors, answer common questions, offer product recommendations, place orders, and more.
AI and Data Analysis
Digital marketing thrives on actionable data, and thanks to developments in AI, marketers now have the tools they need to take data analysis to the next level. For instance, AI tools like Adtext can analyze ad performance across different marketing channels and determine which ones resonate the most with each specific audience, allowing you to get a better ROI for your ads. Another example would be AI in email automation, where their ability to discover relevant content topics, headings, time for sending, and sending frequency really comes to shine. AI is also being used to track marketing campaign performance in real-time, which again allows marketers to determine things like the lowest price-per-click on the fly. Finally, the analysis potential of AI is being leveraged for procedural content generation, which makes them useful for creating personalized content marketing.
AI and Data Mining
In an economy driven by information such as ours, data is a highly valuable commodity. Without quality data, running a modern business operation is nigh impossible, to say nothing of running a digital marketing campaign. Fortunately, in addition to being driven by data, AI can also be used for acquiring it in a systematic fashion. Data-mining AI tools can extract large volumes of data from different sources, organize the material according to dynamically-generated or predetermined patterns, and pipe it through directly to marketers for immediate use. They can then create laser-focused digital marketing campaigns in a fraction of the time it would have taken them just a few years ago. And the longer these AI systems mine data, the better they become at it. Insights gained from through AI data mining has led to the fulfillment of a long-standing marketing dream – possessing total information about each prospect, making conversions all but guaranteed.AI and Competitor Analytics
Modern businesses need to pursue every advantage available to place themselves ahead of competitors. And, one of the most direct ways to gain leverage over someone is to possess information on them. This kind of information used to be difficult to come by. You can spend all the time in the world analyzing what competitors are doing on the surface, but finding the motives behind their behavior is a different matter. That is until you bring AI into the picture. Competitive intelligence AI tools such as Karna AI combine data gathering and analysis features to synthesize insights about rivals. By constantly keeping watch of what your competitors are publishing online, which audiences they’re targeting, and how they’re responding to trends, you can adjust your digital marketing strategy accordingly.AI and Customer Relationship Management
CRM software is a staple of modern digital business. It is used to coordinate customer data coming from multiple channels, including email, social media, website, mobile, and others. CRM tools allow companies to automate their marketing and sales workflow by eliminating tedious busy work that comes with managing a large customer base. Modern CRM products such as SalesForce CRM have taken things a step further by adding AI to their platform. Also they have salesforce feedback management system. This so-called Einstein AI is used for gauging customer disposition based on data provided, and it can then make automatic adjustments to digital marketing campaigns. This helps marketing teams by leaving the tedious parts of marketing work to the AI so that they can focus on more creative parts of their job.Conclusion
AI technology is in the process of transforming the whole digital industry, including marketing. With its automation and data-processing capabilities, AI has the potential to reshape digital marketing through fully automated, personalized, data-driven campaigns. And, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to AI. In the future, digital marketing as such might become a domain run entirely by machines. So, the sooner you adapt to using AI for digital marketing, the better prepared you will be for the inevitable rise of machines. Author: Michael Deane is one of the editors of Qeedle, a small business magazine. When not blogging (or working), he can usually be spotted on the track, doing his laps, or with his nose deep in the latest John Grisham.
